IRLF 


EflS    740 


JAMES  A.  B.SCHERER. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF. CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


WHAT  IS  JAPANESE 
MORALITY  ? 


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What  Is  Japanese 
Morality  ? 


By  James  A.  B.  Scherer 

President  of  Newberry  College.      Author  of 

"Young Japan"  "Japan  To-Day" 

"Four  Princes"  etc. 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  TIMES  Co. 
1906 


Copyright,  1906,  by 
THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  TIMES  COMPANY 


63V/ 7 
S3 


TO 

EDWARD  TRAILL  HORN 

For  auld  lang  syne 


CONTENTS 

I 

THE  FORTY-SEVEN  RONIN 

Modern  Japanese  Progress. — Previous 
Educational  Training. — -Ancient  Military 
Discipline. — The  Chief  Shrine  of  Japa- 
nese Morality 3 

II 
A  JAPANESE  CRUCIFIXION 

Bushido  and  Loyalty. — Japanese  Chiv- 
alry.— Loyalty  and  Parental  Affection. 
— An  Exceptional  Example  of  Al- 
truism  23 

III 
BUSHIDO 

Suicide  and  Patriotism. — The  Benefits 
of  Bushido. — Its  Defective  Harshness. 
— Truthfulness  and  Honesty. — The 

Treatment  of  Women 37 

vii 


M310218 


viii  Contents 

IV 

A  BOODDHIST  SERMON 
Religion   in   Japan. — Booddhism,  Theo- 
retical   and    Practical. — The    Booddhist 
and   the   Bushi. — Frivolity.    ...     59 

V 

CHRISTIANITY 

A  Modern  Theocracy. — Externalized 
Ethics. — Bushi  do  and  Christianity. — 
Points  of  Preparation  for  the  Gospel.  .  73 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Shrines  of  Japanese  Morality  .     .     .   Frontispiece 
A  Knight  of  BushidO facing  page  62 


THE  FORTY-SEVEN  RONIN 


"Shall  a  nation  be  born  in  a  day?" 
The  ancient  Hebrew  prophet  asked  this 
question  with  a  strong  inflection  of  doubt, 
but  the  marvel  of  modern  Japan  has 
seemed  to  answer,  Yes!  Contrast  Japan 
with  Russia.  Two  centuries  ago,  when 
the  Colossus  of  the  North  began  that 
determined  southward  advance  to  find  an 
outlet  for  vast  Siberian  possessions  in  un- 
frozen southern  seas,  Japan  lay  in  the 
limbo  of  oblivion.  Russian  diplomacy 
concerned  itself  with  obstacles  that  were 
really  worth  while.  China  was  hood- 
winked and  muzzled;  Europe  was  held 
in  sullen  silence  by  a  terrifying  show  of 
power;  but  Japan  was  ignored  so  com- 
pletely as  to  argue  itself  unknown.  Was 

3 


4  What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

it  not  only  a  miniature  empire,  one-fiftieth 
the  size  of  Russia,  inhabited  by  a  race 
of  "monkey-faced  dwarfs"?  And  these 
dwarfs  were  the  sworn  enemies  of  prog- 
ress. A  hundred  and  fifty  years  after 
Peter  the  Great  had  commanded  his  stal- 
wart subjects  to  put  on  the  garments  of 
modern  civilization,  the  stupid  little  Japa- 
nese were  wearing  cumbersome  medieval 
armor  into  their  innumerable  internecine 
feuds,  under  the  leadership  of  generals 
who  waved  fans  in  the  air  instead  of 
swords,  while  the  island  gates  were 
boldly  shut  to  modern  progress.  Then, 
a  half  century  ago  the  gates  were 
opened,  but  Russia  took  no  heed.  The 
great  southward  advance  continued,  with 
unswerving  and  apparently  resistless  per- 
sistence. 

Forty  years  of  Japanese  progress  passed 
by.  Ten  years  ago,  the  pygmies  forced 
the  giant  to  take  notice  of  them,  as  they 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?          5 

seized  the  Regent's  Sword1  from  befud- 
dled China,  and  flung  it  athwart  Russia's 
pathway.  But  Russia  deigned  to  take 
notice  only  long  enough  to  grasp  the 
Regent's  Sword  and  possess  it;  Japan's 
interference  with  China  had  but  hastened 
the  southward  advance,  which  now  went 
forward  with  unabashed  seven-league 
strides.  All  Europe  wondered  and  waited, 
afraid  to  intervene  in  the  plans  of  "the 
greatest  of  world-powers  ;  "  only  the  Eng- 
lish, Russia's  traditional  foes,  were  wise 
enough  to  pay  some  slight  attention  to 
Japan.  These  wrought  a  nominal  alli- 
ance with  the  little  people  who  had 
brandished  for  a  day  the  Regent's  Sword 
in  Russia's  face.  Meanwhile,  the  Japa- 
nese were  politely  asking  the  Russians  to 
define  the  bounds  of  the  southward  ad- 

1 A  name  often  applied  to  the  Liaotung  Peninsula,  ceded 
to  Japan  after  the  war  with  China,  but  given  back  under 
the  coercion  of  Russia,  who  then  "  leased  "  it. 


6  What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

vance,  seeing  that  their  own  national  ex- 
istence was  involved;  but  the  Russians 
delayed  answering  upon  pretexts  incredi- 
bly contemptuous  and  exasperating,1  while 
constantly  augmenting  their  armament; 
when  at  last,  after  six  months  of  vain 
parleying,  the  pygmies  struck  swiftly  and 
hard.  That  was  on  the  eighth  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1904.  Since  that  day  the  world  has 
been  wonder-struck.  The  dwarfs  who  but 

1  Japan  attempted  to  open  negotiations  July  28,  1903, 
and  persisted  continuously  in  the  attempt.  On  November 
27,  the  Japanese  representative  in  St.  Petersburg  tele- 
graphed to  his  government  that  the  emperor  still  delayed 
attention  to  the  matter,  "  on  account  of  the  sickness  of  the 
empress.  Interior  inflammation  of  her  right  ear."  On 
December  4,  he  telegraphed  that  Count  Lamsdorff,  in  reply 
to  his  urgent  request  that  the  Count  should  confer  imme- 
diately with  the  emperor,  made  answer  that  "  Saturday  is 
the  fete  of  Crown  Prince,  no  business  is  transacted  on 
Sunday,  and  he  will  be  occupied  with  other  affairs  on 
Monday."  These  are  examples  of  the  Russian  excuses, 
quoted  from  "  Correspondence  Regarding  the  Negotia- 
tions between  Japan  and  Russia,  Presented  to  the  Imperial 
(Japanese)  Diet,  March,  1904." 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?          7 

yesterday  were  shut  up  in  medieval  bar- 
barism have  used  unaccustomed  Western 
weapons  to  such  tremendous  effect  that  the 
mightiest  of  world-powers  is  humbled  in 
dust  and  blood,  while  Japan,  dictator  of 
imperial  destinies,  is  changing  the  map  of 
the  world.  It  is  the  marvel  of  modern 
history. 

It  is  marvelous,  but  after  all  it  is  not 
magical ;  it  is  in  reality  the  result  of  a  pro- 
longed and  peculiar  process  of  national 
education.  The  Japanese  secluded  them- 
selves so  perfectly  for  two  and  a  quarter 
centuries  that  the  world  had  no  oppor- 
tunity of  finding  out  what  use  they  were 
making  of  their  time.  In  reality,  they 
were  educating  themselves.  lyeyasu,  the 
de  facto  ruler  of  Japan  for  many  years 
(born  1542,  died  1616),  and  the  greatest 
figure  in  Japanese  history,  accomplished 
his  most  important  work  when  he  set  the 
whole  nation  to  studying,  after  having  first 


8  What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

shut  out  all  disturbing  foreign  influences. 
He  became  the  father  of  a  revival  of  letters 
comparable  in  its  way  with  that  which  had 
begun  in  Europe  a  hundred  years  earlier. 
In  this  case,  the  Chinese  or  Confucian 
classics  were  revived,  but,  as  in  Europe, 
classical  studies  prepared  the  way  for  the 
development  of  a  vigorous  native  litera- 
ture. Schools  were  established  broadcast 
for  the  warrior-class,  or  samurai,  where 
literature  was  diligently  taught,  together 
with  caligraphy,  history,  and  geography. 
So  well  did  this  system  eventually  accom- 
plish its  object  that  Commodore  Perry  was 
vastly  astonished  in  1853  when  he  found  that 
this  nation  of  hermits,  after  more  than  two 
centuries  of  insulation,  was  familiar  with 
the  geography  and  importance  of  New  York 
City  and  Washington,  even  inquiring  about 
the  construction  of  the  Panama  Canal! 
We  learn  from  the  Perry  Narrative  that 
"  they  seemed  to  acquire  rapidly  some  in- 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?  9 

sight  into  the  nature  of  steam,  and  the 
mode  with  which  it  was  applied  to  put  into 
action  the  great  engine,  and  move  by  its 
power  the  wheels  of  the  steamers.  Their 
questions  were  of  the  most  intelligent 
character." 

But  the  principal  branches  of  the  old- 
time  samurai  system  of  education  were  not 
so  much  intellectual  as  martial;  being  of 
a  distinctly  military  nature,  such  as  tactics, 
fencing,  archery,  horsemanship,  the  use  of 
the  spear,  and  jiu-jutsu  (incorrectly  spelled 
jiu-jitsu),  that  unique  physical  science  which 
teaches  the  weak  to  cope  successfully  with 
the  strong.  Above  all,  we  must  not  forget 
that  in  all  of  the  teaching,  supreme  em- 
phasis was  laid  on  the  virtue  of  loyalty, 
which  has  been  called  the  chief  feature  of 
Japanese  feudalism,  as  it  remains  the  secret 
spring  of  the  country's  military  strength  to 
this  day.  It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate 
the  importance  of  loyalty  in  the  develop- 


io         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

ment  of  Japanese  ethics.  Every  ray  of 
education  has  been  focused  upon  this  as 
its  object.  Even  religion  has  been  made  a 
mere  tool  for  the  development  of  patriot- 
ism, through  the  doctrine  that  the  emperor 
is  God.  Morality  has  not  been  treated 
after  the  Western  conception,  as  including 
a  variety  of  virtues,  but  as  finding  its 
absolute  expression  in  devotion  to  the 
prince,  who  is  above  wife,  above  children, 
above  father  and  mother,  above  right,  be- 
cause he  is  no  other  than  the  literal  "  son 
of  heaven/'  The  folk-lore  of  the  people, 
the  religious  fables  taught  to  the  children, 
and  the  parables  of  the  always  patriotic 
preachers,  have  all  converged  in  the  one 
conclusion  that  to  fear  the  emperor  and 
to  keep  his  commandments  constitutes  the 
whole  duty  of  man.  In  consequence,  there 
sprang  up  that  strangest  of  human  institu- 
tions, the  fatal  drill  known  as  hara-kiri, 
which  added  practise  to  precept  through 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality  f         1 1 

the  proof  of  loyalty  by  the  test  of  the 
supreme  surrender.  That  is  to  say,  the 
young  men  in  the  ancient  schools  were 
daily  instructed  in  all  of  the  tragic  details 
of  suicide,  having  it  "impressed  on  their 
youthful  imaginations  with  such  force  and 
vividness  that,  when  the  time  for  its  actual 
enactment  came,  they  were  able  to  meet 
the  bloody  reality  without  a  tremor  and 
with  perfect  composure."  Readiness  to 
surrender  the  life  to  one's  lord  was  thus 
drilled  into  the  very  marrow  of  the  na- 
tion, for  jigaiy  or  throat-cutting,  among  the 
women  corresponded  to  the  hara-kiri,  or 
bowel-piercing,  of  the  men. 

The  most  classic  and  popular  illustration 
of  Japanese  ethical  standards  is  the  true 
story  of  the  Forty-seven  Ronin,  whose 
sacred  tomb  in  Tokyo  is  the  ever  fre- 
quented Mecca  of  Japanese  patriotism. 
The  word  ronin  means  "wave-men,"  being 
anciently  applied  to  such  warriors  as  had, 


12         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

for  some  reason  or  other,  become  detached 
from  their  rightful  lord,  to  be  tossed  by 
the  winds  of  adventure  like  turbulent  bil- 
lows about  the  face  of  the  earth.  This 
group  of  forty-seven  men  had  become 
ronin  in  consequence  of  the  self-inflicted 
death  of  their  master,  Lord  Takumi,  which 
is  the  pivot  around  which  the  tragic  tale 
revolves. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, Takumi,  by  command  of  the  highest 
authorities,  was  in  service  at  the  court  of 
Tokyo,  then  called  Yedo,  learning  the  arts 
of  the  courtier  under  a  rude  and  greedy 
master  of  ceremonies  named  Kotsuke, 
whose  disfavor  he  incurred  because  his 
gifts  to  this  majordomo  were  not  sufficient 
to  appease  his  greed.  Kotsuke,  who  was 
of  a  mean  and  spiteful  disposition,  lost  no 
opportunity  to  affront  Takumi,  whose  long- 
suffering  self-control  he  foolishly  mistook 
for  cowardice.  One  day,  however,  he  over- 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         13 

stepped  the  mark.  Having  ordered  Takumi 
to  perform  one  of  the  most  menial  of  orien- 
tal services — to  fasten  the  latchet  of  his 
shoe — he  then  showed  his  contempt  for  the 
abasement  of  his  proud  disciple  by  a  sneer. 
"Why,"  he  exclaimed,  "this  country  bump- 
kin cannot  even  tie  a  sandal!"  With  this, 
the  pent-up  wrath  of  Takumi  finally  gave 
way,  and  he  flung  himself  with  murderous 
dirk  upon  his  insolent  instructor,  who, 
however,  escaped.  Takumi,  realizing  that 
he  had  been  disloyal  to  his  temporary  mas- 
ter, and  had  also  violated  the  rules  of  deco- 
rum, calmly  repaired  his  fault  as  best  he 
might  by  the  immediate  commission  of 
hara-kiri. 

To  avenge  their  master's  self-inflicted 
death  now  became  the  prime  obligation  of 
his  forty-seven  retainers,  according  to  the 
fundamental  Confucian  axiom,  "  Thou  shalt 
not  live  under  the  same  heaven  nor  tread 
the  same  earth  with  the  enemy  of  thy 


14          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

father  or  lord."  Accepting  the  leadership 
of  the  chief  retainer,  Kuranosuke,  they 
bided  their  time  as  wave-men,  secretly 
planning  revenge. 

Kuranosuke  is  the  leading  hero  of  the 
drama.  In  order  to  throw  the  enemy  off 
his  guard,  this  astute  strategist  removed  to 
a  distant  city  and  surrendered  to  a  life  of 
dissipation.  Kotsuke,  well  knowing  that 
loyalty  would  prompt  revenge,  spied  upon 
his  foes  with  secret  emissaries,  who,  how- 
ever, reported  finally  that  nothing  need  be 
feared,  since  the  leader  Kuranosuke  had  so 
utterly  abandoned  himself  to  a  life  of  dis- 
soluteness as  to  become  the  most  notorious 
figure  in  the  city.  One  day  a  southern 
warrior  saw  him  lying  drunken  in  the  gut- 
ter, and  spat  upon  his  face  with  the  scorn- 
ful words:  "Is  not  this  the  sometime 
counsellor  of  Lord  Takumi,  who,  not  hav- 
ing the  spirit  to  avenge  his  master,  gives 
himself  up  to  women  and  wine?  See  how 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         15 

he  lies  drunk  in  the  public  streets!  Faith- 
less beast!  Fool  and  coward!  Unworthy 
the  name  of  samurai  f"  His  wife  venturing 
to  reproach  him  for  his  shame,  he  savagely 
abused  and  then  divorced  her,  sending  her 
away  with  their  two  younger  children,  and 
taking  into  his  home  a  harlot  in  her  stead. 
"Admirable  and  faithful  man ! "  exclaims  * 
the  Japanese  moralist  who  records  the 
story;  for  whenever  loyalty  is  involved,  all 
other  considerations  must  be  sacrificed. 
Meanwhile,  others  of  the  ronin  had  dis- 
guised themselves  as  artisans  or  servants, 
and  so  found  access  to  the  castle  of  their 
common  enemy  in  Tokyo.  All  were  banded 
together  in  the  solemn  oath  of  revenge, 
and  all  were  directed  by  the  cunning  lead- 
ership of  Kuranosuke. 

Finally,  the  object  of  their  hatred  having 
been  lulled  into  a  complete  sense  of  false 
security,  Kuranosuke  secretly  joined  his 
companions  in  Tokyo,  and  made  ready  to 


1 6          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

* 

strike  the  fatal  blow.  On  a  snowy  mid- 
night in  December,  1703,  the  loyal  con- 
spirators forced  their  way  into  their  enemy's 
home,  in  two  bands,  under  the  direction  of 
Kuranosuke  and  his  sixteen-year-old  son, 
Chikara.  Every  detail  had  been  carefully 
planned,  and  after  a  severe  struggle  the  de- 
fenders of  Kotsuke  were  overpowered.  He 
himseli  eluded  search  for  a  time,  but  at 
length  was  discovered  in  his  hiding-place 
— a  dignified  patrician  figure,  some  sixty 
years  of  age,  clad  in  a  white  satin  sleeping- 
robe.  Kuranosuke,  mindful  of  the  etiquette 
of  the  occasion,  prostrated  himself  before 
the  ensnared  insulter  of  his  departed  lord, 
and  in  a  polite  address  offered  him  the 
opportunity  of  suicide.  "I  myself  will 
/_  have  the  honor  to  act  as  your  second,  and 
when,  with  all  humility,  I  shall  have  re- 
ceived your  lordship's  head,  it  is  my  inten- 
tion to  lay  it  as  an  offering  upon  the  grave 
of  Lord  Takumi." 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         17 

But  the  aged  Kotsuke  was  much  too 
terrified  to  accept  the  proffered  courtesy, 
so  the  chief  of  the  ronin  beheaded  him 
with  the  selfsame  dagger  wherewith  Takumi 
had  died,  and,  placing  the  head  in  a  pail, 
departed  with  his  companions  in  virtuous 
joy. 

After  having  feasted  on  the  way  in  cele- 
bration of  the  consummation  of  their  plan, 
the  forty-seven  ronin  reached  the  temple 
cemetery  where  their  lord  lay  buried.  Here, 
when  they  had  washed  the  head  in  a  con- 
venient well,  they  laid  it  ceremoniously 
as  an  offering  upon  their  master's  grave, 
Kuranosuke  and  his  son  Chikara  and  then 
each  of  the  others  in  turn  burning  incense, 
while  the  priests  of  the  temple  chanted 
prayers.  They  also  laid  upon  the  tomb  a 
memorial  paper  which  concluded  with  the 
words,  "This  dirk,  by  which  our  honored 
lord  set  great  store  last  year,  and  entrusted 
to  our  care,  we  now  bring  back.  If  your 


1 8          What  Is  Japanese  Morality  ? 

noble  spirit  be  now  present  before  this 
tomb,  we  pray  you,  as  a  sign,  to  take  the 
dirk,  and,  striking  the  head  of  your  enemy 
with  it  a  second  time,  to  dispel  your  hatred 
forever.  This  is  the  respectful  statement 
of  forty-seven  men." 

In  due  time  the  Tokyo  authorities,  while 
secretly  admiring  the  loyalty  of  the  ronin, 
yet  for  the  sake  of  law  and  order  con- 
demned them  for  their  crime.  This,  indeed, 
the  ronin  had  foreseen,  and  had  paid  the 
priests  beforehand  for  burial  with  their 
master,  and  for  masses  in  behalf  of  their 
souls.  With  one  mind,  therefore,  all  of  the 
devoted  band  committed  hara-kiriy  and  were 
laid  to  rest  beside  their  martyred  master. 

The  fame  of  the  loyal  deed  spread  rapidly 
throughout  the  land,  and  the  tomb  at  once 
became  a  holy  place.  Among  the  thou- 
sands who  came  as  pilgrims  to  the  scene, 
was  the  same  southern  warrior  who  in 
ignorance  had  once  spat  upon  the  drunken 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         19 

form  of  Kuranosuke.  Kneeling  before  the 
tomb  he  addressed  to  the  departed  spirit  a 
prayer  for  pardon,  and  then  offered  atone- 
ment for  his  fault  by  committing  suicide. 
He,  too,  is  buried  with  the  ronin;  nor  has 
he  been  the  last  to  follow  their  fatal  ex- 
ample upon  that  consecrated  spot.  The 
writer  has  often  visited  the  humble  little 
enclosure  in  Tokyo  which  marks  the  last 
resting-place  of  these  turbulent  wave-men, 
but  never  without  finding  the  soil  beaten 
hard  by  the  feet  of  countless  pilgrims, 
whose  white  votive  offerings  always  cover 
the  shrine,  which  is  the  chief  shrine  of  / 
Japanese  morality.1 

It  may  thus  be  perceived  how  Japan  had 
been  prepared  for  the  coming  of  Commo- 
dore Perry,  through  intellectual  education 
of  the  most  assiduous  character,  and  how 

*A  detailed  account  of  the  Forty-Seven  Ronin,  together 
with  a  full  treatment  of  hara-kiri  and  much  other  inter- 
esting matter  may  be  found  in  A.  B.  Mitford's  "  Tales  of 
Old  Japan." 


2O         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

in  particular  her  peculiar  military  training 
enabled  her  to  seize  our  modern  Western 
weapons  and  work  wonders.  Nor  must  it 
be  forgot  that  one  of  the  most  striking 
traits  of  the  people  is  their  readiness  in- 
stantly to  discard  old  things  for  better  ones. 
This  unique  flexibility  of  temperament, 
coupled  with  the  remarkable  discipline  that 
resulted  from  their  prolonged  period  of  in- 
dustrious hermitage,  accounts  for  the  Japa- 
nese of  to-day. 


A  JAPANESE  CRUCIFIXION 


II 

The  ethical  and  intellectual  ideals  of  the 
Japanese  people  have  been  chiefly  derived 
from  two  foreign  systems  of  thought, 
Booddhism  and  Confucianism.  These  have 
intermingled  with  the  native  mythology 
known  as  Shinto,  "the  way  of  the  gods." 
All  have  agreed  in  teaching  the  supreme 
importance  of  loyalty:  Booddhism  by  its 
doctrine  of  self-repression,  Confucianism 
through  the  great  law  of  filialism,  extended 
to  the  State,  the  obligation  becoming  the 
more  intense  as  it  extends  upward  from 
the  family  to  the  father  of  his  people;  and 
Shinto,  essentially  ancestor-worship,  with 
its  superadded  belief  that  the  father  of  his 
people  is  divine.  In  a  nation  which  makes 
everything  of  loyalty,  the  samurai,  or 

23 


24         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

warrior-class,  naturally  became  pre-eminent, 
and  the  ethical  system  of  Japan  has  finally 
become  known  as  Bushido,  "  the  way  of  the 
warrior."  Bushidd  is  not  an  original  system 
of  morals,  but  a  handy  name  to  denote  the 
samurai  code,  which  has  been  builded  of 
complex  elements  around  the  lodestone 
of  loyalty. 

Striking  illustrations  of  the  strong  sur- 
vival of  this  spirit  are  of  almost  daily  occur- 
rence, especially  among  the  soldier  and 
student  classes,  who  worship  it  frequently 
under  the  name  of  Yamato-damashii,  or 
"Japanese  soul."  A  somewhat  amusing 
instance  comes  to  mind  as  I  write.  In  a 
government  school  in  southern  Japan  we 
had  a  native  teacher  who  was  notoriously 
of  a  dilatory  habit.  On  ordinary  occasions 
this  gave  but  little  concern,  as  the  people 
at  large  are  celebrated  for  a  contemptuous 
disregard  of  the  value  of  time.  But  on 
stated  occasions  the  Imperial  Educational 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?        25 

Rescript  is  read,  which,  since  it  emanates 
from  Tenshi  Sama,  the  "  son  of  heaven,"  is 
deemed  both  holy  and  inspired.  And  once 
Professor  Darezo  (let  us  call  him)  dared  to 
be  late  for  the  Rescript.  Immediately  the 
loyalistic  students  took  the  teacher  in  hand. 
Darezo  was  the  teacher  of  Ethics.  It  did 
not  matter  that  he  had  habitually  violated 
most  of  the  chief  moralities  embraced  in 
the  Western  conception,  but  to  them  it  did 
matter  profoundly  that  he  should  show 
disrespect  for  the  emperor's  essay.  In 
their  youthful  fervor  the  students  felt  that 
His  Imperial  Majesty  had  been  grossly  in- 
sulted through  this  neglectful  attitude, — 
and  in  a  formal  petition  they  consequently 
commanded  Professor  Darezo  to  commit 
hara-kiri  that  he  might  expiate  his  crime. 
Darezo  declined  to  kill  himself  literally, 
but  he  was  dead  from  that  time  forward  so 
far  as  his  influence  was  concerned,  because 
he  had  infringed  the  sole  and  single  law  of 


26         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

duty,  the  morality  of  loyalty.  Many  of 
those  same  students  are  now  in  the  army 
and  navy.  It  is  easy  to  infer  that  they 
make  magnificent  soldiers,  seeing  that  all 
of  their  ideals  center  in  loyalty,  and  they 
have  no  higher  aspiration  than  to  lay  down 
their  lives  for  deity  incarnate  on  the  throne. 
/  Bushido  is  the  chief  secret  of  the  marvelous 
military  strength  of  Japan. 

An  attempt  is  now  being  made  by  subtle 
Japanese  writers  to  set  this  word  in  our 
dictionaries  as  a  synonym  for  chivalry,  but 
it  may  reasonably  be  contended  that  loyalty 
unmixed  with  other  equal  virtues  hardly 
constitutes  a  title  to  knighthood  as  we  now 
interpret  the  term.  In  "Japan  To-day"  I 
have  told  how  a  class  of  students  once 
chose  the  suicide  of  Admiral  Ting  to  illus- 
trate the  noblest  deed  of  which  they  had 
ever  heard — with  the  exception,  indeed,  of 
one  precocious  scholar,  who  eulogized  a 
peasant  that  had  slain  his  wife  in  order  to 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         27 

feed  her  liver  to  his  aged  mother,  and  so 
restore  failing  vision!  The  end  in  each 
case  was  loyalty,  for  Ting  had  felt  that  it 
would  disgrace  the  Chinese  emperor  for 
such  an  exalted  official  as  himself  to  sur- 
render to  the  Japanese  foe;  and  as  for  the 
peasant,  his  parent  was  to  him  in  place  of 
prince, — filial  piety  being  a  lower  branch 
of  loyalty,  —  but  the  means  employed 
seemed  to  my  Western  mind  to  be  hideous. 
A  London  journal,  reviewing  the  book, 
flung  back  at  me  the  glass-house  proverb, 
with  certain  pointed  remarks  about  Ameri- 
can lynchings.  But  the  British  paper 
utterly  missed  the  issue.  It  is  hardly  con- 
ceivable that  an  American  boy  could  write 
of  lynching  as  a  noble  thing;  we  univer- 
sally deprecate  and  deplore  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Japanese  students  exalted 
suicide  and  wife-murder  into  the  noblest 
deeds  of  which  they  had  ever  heard,  be- 
cause  of  the  end  in  view.  And  now  comes 


28          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

Professor  Nitobe's  little  book  on  Buskido, 
whose  ideals  he  seems  to  glorify,  and  it 
contains  the  following  typical  example  of 
Bushido  ethics : 

Michizane,  now  worshiped  with  divine 
honors  as  the  patron  saint  of  education, 
was  sent  into  exile  by  a  cruel  ruler  during 
his  lifetime — in  the  ninth  century — and  a 
price  set  on  the  heads  of  all  his  household. 
Genzo,  a  schoolmaster  disciple  of  Michi- 
zane's,  succeeded  in  secreting  his  master's 
son  for  a  little  season,  but  the  hiding-place 
was  discovered  by  zealous  spies,  and  the 
child  was  condemned  to  death.  The  loyal 
Genzo  now  sought  a  substitute  with  whom 
to  deceive  the  executioner,  and  with  suc- 
cess. At  the  critical  moment  a  mother 
appeared  leading  her  little  boy,  who  bore 
such  striking  resemblance  to  Michizane's 
son  that  the  official  who  came  to  identify 
the  trunkless  head  declared  himself  to  be 
satisfied.  But  this  official  was  none  other 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         29 

than  Genzo  himself,  father  of  the  murdered 
child,  who  had  wormed  his  way  into  this 
position  in  order  to  save  his  master's  son. 
The  mother,  as  loyal  as  her  husband,  was 
of  course  party  to  the  sacrifice,  upon  which 
both  parents  had  agreed  as  the  only  re- 
course of  loyalty.  This  is  the  story  de- 
liberately set  forth  as  an  illustration  of 
Japanese  ethical  ideals,  the  author  suggest- 
ing its  analogy  with  the  story  of  Abraham 
and  Isaac.  Instilled  into  the  plastic  minds 
of  generations  of  Japanese  children,  such 
stories — venerated  as  we  reverence  our 
Bible — have  begotten  unquestioning  cour- 
age, and  a  loyalty  that  hesitates  at  nothing ; 
but  courage  does  not  spell  the  whole  of 
character,  nor  is  such  loyalty  synonymous 
with  chivalry. 

There  is  one  incident  in  Japanese  history 
that  rises  very  high  as  an  example  of  pure 
altruism  attained  in  spite  of  the  obligations 
of  "loyalty/1  but — for  this  very  reason, 


30          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

perhaps — it  is  not  greatly  exalted  by  the 
Japanese  moralists  themselves.  For  people 
of  Christian  training  it  possesses  peculiar 
interest  as  indicating  the  latent  possibilities 
of  this  most  interesting  race  towards  an 
acceptance  and  practical  application  of  the 
gospel. 

When  the  great  lyemitsu  was  generalis- 
simo (shdguri)  of  the  empire,  a  greedy  but 
powerful  nobleman  bearing  the  same  name 
as  the  villain  in  the  story  of  the  Forty- 
seven  Ronin  so  oppressed  the  peasants  who 
tilled  his  lands  that  they  underwent  "the 
tortures  of  hell  upon  earth."  Lord  Kot- 
suke  resided  at  the  court  of  lyemitsu  in 
Tokyo.  The  peasants  having  frequently 
appealed  in  vain  to  their  lord's  local  stew- 
ards for  relief,  at  length  hit  upon  the 
desperate  expedient  of  addressing  him  per- 
sonally in  Tokyo.  Under  the  old  ceremo- 
nial dispensation  this  plan  was  attended 
with  grave  dangers,  being  regarded  as  an 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         31 

outrage  upon  rank ;  while  the  shogun  him- 
self and  his  private  affairs  were  deemed  so 
inviolate  that  the  extreme  degradation  of 
crucifixion  was  reserved  not  only  for  parri- 
cide (including  the  killing  or  striking  of 
parents,  uncles,  aunts,  elder  brothers,  mas- 
ters, or  teachers)  and  the  coining  of  coun- 
terfeit money,  but  also  for  passing  the 
barriers  of  the  shogun 's  territory  without  a 
permit.  The  headsmen  of  the  oppressed 
villages,  however, — one  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  in  number, — persistently  journeyed  to 
Tokyo,  where  they  met  with  disheartening 
rebuffs.  The  wisest  of  their  number, 
Sogoro,  clearly  foreseeing  that  nothing 
short  of  an  appeal  to  lyemitsu  himself 
could  relieve  them,  and  that  this  as  surely 
meant  death,  had  failed  to  join  his  com- 
panions in  their  journey,  and  had  in  conse- 
quence incurred  their  displeasure.  But 
when  they  had  exhausted  all  their  re- 
sources they  sent  messengers  invoking  his 


32         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

assistance;  and  he,  completely  foreseeing 
the  issue,  departed  from  his  family  with 
the  words :  "  Let  us  drink  a  cup  of  wine 
together,  for  it  may  be  that  you  shall  see 
my  face  no  more.  I  give  my  life  to  allay 
the  misery  of  the  people  of  this  estate. 
If  I  die,  mourn  not  over  my  fate;  weep  not 
for  me." 

Arrived  in  Tokyo,  Sogoro  first  tried  the 
expedient  of  an  appeal  to  a  member  of  the 
cabinet,  with  the  only  result  that  he  and 
his  associates  were  repelled  in  bitter  dis- 
grace. He  then  took  the  last  desperate 
step.  One  day  in  December,  as  lyemitsu 
traveled  in  state  to  the  tomb  of  his  princely 
ancestors,  Sogoro,  who  had  concealed  him- 
self under  a  bridge,  assaulted  the  sacrosanct 
palanquin  and  thrust  his  petition  forcibly 
into  the  hands  of  the  shogun.  He  was 
arrested,  but  the  shogun  relieved  the  poor 
peasants. 

Kotsuke's  rapacity  having  been  exposed 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         33 

to  his  peers,  he  was  outraged  beyond  all 
endurance;  and,  being  absolute  master  of 
his  territory,  he  condemned  not  only  the 
offender  to  death,  but  also  his  wife  and 
three  children.  Being  implored  to  spare 
the  lives  of  the  mother  and  children  he 
answered,  "  Where  the  sin  of  the  father  is 
great,  the  wife  and  the  children  must 
suffer." 

In  February,  1644,  Sogoro  and  his  family 
were  crucified.  It  is  reported  that  the  wife 
called  from  her  cross  to  the  husband,  "  Let 
us  cheerfully  lay  down  our  single  lives  for 
the  good  of  the  many.  Man  lives  for  but 
one  generation;  his  name,  for  many.  A 
good  name  is  rather  to  be  prized  than  life." 

So  she  spoke ;  and  Sogoro  on  the  cross, 
laughing  gaily,  answered : 

"Well  said,  wife.  What  though  we  are 
punished  for  the  many?  Our  petition  was 
successful,  and  there  is  nothing  left  to  wish 
for.  Now  I  am  happy,  for  I  have  attained 


34          What  Is  Japanese  Morality  ? 

my  heart's  desire.  The  changes  and  chances 
of  life  are  manifold.  But  if  I  had  five  hun- 
dred lives,  and  could  five  hundred  times 
assume  this  shape  of  mine,  I  would  die 
five  hundred  times  to  avenge  this  iniquity. 
For  myself  I  care  not;  but  that  my  wife 
and  children  should  be  punished  also,  is 
too  much.  Pitiless  and  cruel!  Let  my 
lord  fence  himself  in  with  iron  walls,  yet 
shall  my  spirit  burst  through  them  and 
crush  his  bones,  as  a  return  for  this  evil 
deed." 

The  moral  sublimity  of  the  story  is 
marred  by  the  vengeful  spirit  of  the  victim, 
who  is  said  to  have  tormented  the  tyrant 
afterwards  as  a  ghost;  "but,"  adds  the 
Japanese  chronicler,  "  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  from  the  dark  ages  down  to  the 
present  time,  there  are  few  instances  of  one 
man  laying  down  his  life  for  the  many,  as 
SogorO  did;  noble  and  peasant  praise  him." 


BUSHIDO 


Ill 

Although  the  incident  caused  great  in- 
ternational excitement  at  the  time,  it  now 
seems  to  have  passed  from  the  public  mind 
that  Nicholas  of  Russia  (then  Czarevitch) 
was  almost  assassinated  while  traveling 
through  Japan  in  1891.  To  me  it  has 
seemed  possible  that  this  peculiar  monarch 
mistook  the  noble  shame  into  which  the 
Japanese  people  were  plunged  by  this  inci- 
dent for  an  ignoble  cowardice, — they  made 
the 'most  abject  apologies, — and  that  this 
accounts  to  a  large  degree  for  the  con- 
tempt in  which  for  so  long  he  seemed  to 
hold  them.  But  the  incident  has  signifi- 
cance in  the  present  inquiry  as  going  to 
prove  that  the  strange  ideals  of  Bnshido 
are  still  the  dominant  impulses  of  the  peo- 

37 


38          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

pie.  The  samurai  policeman  who  struck 
that  blow,  and  the  samurai  youth  who  shot 
Li  Hung  Chang  four  years  afterward,  were 
led  by  a  feeling  of  mistaken  loyalty  to  rid 
their  country  of  visitors  whose  very  pres- 
ence seemed  to  them  to  be  an  insult  to 
the  sacred  soil.  Not  only  so,  but  the  at- 
tempted assassination  of  the  Czarevitch  was 
promptly  followed  by  the  suicide  of  a 
samurai  woman  who  left  a  dying  declara- 
tion that  she  would  thus  with  her  blood 
expiate  the  outrage  that  had  been  wrought 
by  the  policeman  upon  the  national  hospi- 
tality. 

Within  a  few  months  after  this  an  inci- 
dent even  more  remarkable  occurred.  An 
American  missionary  had  been  mysteri- 
ously murdered,  and  the  government  had 
vainly  set  its  excellent  police  to  find  the 
criminal.  Two  years  having  passed,  a 
man  now  came  forward  and  confessed  the 
crime.  He  was  about  to  be  executed, 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         39 

when  his  friends  succeeded  in  proving  be- 
yond all  doubt  that  he  had  no  connection 
whatsoever  with  the  murder.  Questioned 
as  to  what  strange  motive  could  have  led 
him  to  confess  to  a  capital  crime  of  which 
he  was  absolutely  innocent,  the  man  calmly 
replied  that  Japan  had  been  disgraced  in 
the  eyes  of  the  nations  through  the  failure 
of  the  police  to  find  the  criminal,  and  he 
desired  to  wipe  out  the  blot  by  the  sacrifice 
of  his  own  innocent  life. 

Similar  examples  were  of  frequent  oc- 
currence during  the  Russo-Japanese  war. 
I  cite  these  because  they  came  under 
my  own  personal  observation,  and  be- 
cause they  seem  to  be  extremely  typical. 
Loyalty  prompted  alike  the  blow  at  the 
Czarevitch  and  the  atoning  suicide,  the 
murder  of  the  missionary  for  subverting 
national  customs,  and  the  self-surrender 
of  the  innocent  man  to  mitigate  inter- 
national contempt.  It  only  remains  to  be 


4O         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

added  that  each  actor  in  these  tragedies 
assumed  heroic  proportions  in  the  eyes  of 
the  people,  although  indeed  they  deemed 
the  would-be  assassins  mistaken  in  their 
manner  of  expressing  loyalty,— for  the 
spirit  of  loyalty,  in  one  form  or  another, 
is  the  sole  controlling  ideal  of  Japanese 
morals,  j  In  the  case  of  the  policeman  that 
struck  the  Russian  prince  and  the  fervid 
youth  who  shot  the  distinguished  Chinese 
statesman,  the  people  disowned  the  deed, 
but  condoned  the  spirit  that  prompted  it; 
for  it  was  the  spirit  of  Bushido,  "  the  way 
of  the  warrior,"  and  this  is  the  way  of 
salvation. 

Bushido  carries  with  it  some  most  ad- 
mirable traits.  Loyalty  is  itself  a  noble 
spiritual  fruitage,  and  its  prerequisite  is  un- 
faltering courage.  Not  only  so,  but  the 
loyalty  of  vassals  elicits  reciprocal  benevo- 
lence on  the  part  of  the  lord  who  is  served. 
Noblesse  oblige.  The  obligation  of  rank  is 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         41 

a  principle  of  wide  application  in  Japan 
to-day,  underlying  even  the  commonplace 
giving  of  tea-money.  Stinginess  was  de- 
spised among  samurai  as  unworthy  of  men 
who  traffic  in  spiritual  entities.  Two 
favorite  moral  maxims  answer  to  each 
other  as  follows:  "Above  all  things,  men 
must  practise  charity,  for  it  is  by  almsgiv- 
ing that  wisdom  is  fed."  "  Less  than  all 
things  men  must  grudge  money,  for  it  is 
by  riches  that  wisdom  is  hindered."  More- 
over, the  mutual  relationships  between  lord 
and  vassal  in  the  various  grades  of  society 
gave  rise  in  a  naturally  esthetic  people  to 
an  elaborate  ceremonial  of  politeness, — 
and  politeness  has  been  defined  as  "mo- 
rality in  trifles."  But  the  finest  trait  of  the 
samurai  was  his  splendid  self-control,  born 
of  the  teachings  of  Booddhism,  and  nour- 
ished by  elaborate  system, — a  quality  which, 
superimposed  on  a  naturally  hot  and  im- 
petuous temperament,  gives  him  to-day  his 


42          What  Is  Japanese  Morality  f 

final  paradoxical  strength  as  a  soldier,  link- 
ing a  more  than  Teutonic  coolness  with  the 
irresistible  passion  of  the  Celt.  If  the  sole 
aim  of  character  is  the  development  of 
splendid  fighting  machines,  then  Bushido  is 
the  finest  moral  system  in  the  world.  And 
with  all  of  our  boasted  moral  progress,  the 
truth  still  remains  that  we  dearly  love  a 
fighter,  so  that  we  seem  half  likely  to  be 
dazzled  by  the  militant  patriotism  of  Japan 
into  a  belief  that  the  people  are  demigods. 
But  even  such  qualities  as  loyalty  and 
self-control  are  liable  to  be  overwrought. 
Indeed  it  may  be  set  forth  as  an  axiom  that 
every  virtue  can  be  exaggerated  into  a 
vice  which  is  its  counterfeit,  and  works  for 
its  eventual  undoing.  Thus  bravery  may 
degenerate  into  bravado,  and  modesty  to 
prudery,  humility  to  servility,  and  love  into 
lust.  So  also  in  "The  Mikado's  Empire" 
we  come  upon  the  startling  declaration 
that  "the  annals  of  no  other  country  are 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?        43 

richer  in  the  recitals  of  results  gained  by 
treachery  "  than  the  annals  of  loyalist  Japan. 
But  is  it  not  really  inevitable  that,  if  loyalty 
to  one's  lord  be  the  sole  goal  of  conduct, 
unchecked  by  a  sense  of  obligation  toward 
one's  fellows,  treachery  to  the  whole  world 
besides  must  be  its  price?  And  is  not  the 
duty  of  treachery  distinctly  implied  by  the 
very  story  which  Professor  Nitobe  selects 
as  the  quintessence  of  Bushidot  Little  did 
it  concern  Michizane's  vassal  that  he  should 
play  the  part  of  traitor  to  his  employer  and 
to  his  own  paternal  affection  in  order  to  be 
loyal  to  his  lord.  And  likewise  if  other 
typical  instances  of  Japanese  loyalty  be 
closely  searched,  it  will  be  found  that  a 
noble  self-sacrifice  is  not  the  only  principle 
involved,  but  the  ignoble  sacrifice  of  things 
sacred. 

After  the  same  fashion  their  Booddhistic 
stoicism  has  seemed  to  rob  them  of  sym- 
pathy,— a  quality  which  one  of  their  great- 


44         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

est  educators  has  declared  to  be  among 
their  sorest  needs.  I  speak  of  ethical  sym- 
pathy, not  of  the  esthetic.  The  latter  they 
have  in  plenty,  so  that  a  native  writer  may 
beautifully  say:  "Though  they  come  steal- 
ing to  your  bedside  in  the  silent  watches  of 
the  night,  drive  not  away,  but  rather  cherish 
these, — the  fragrance  of  flowers,  the  sound 
of  distant  bells,  the  insect  hummings  of  a 
frosty  night."  A  marvelous  sympathy  with 
nature  has  made  them  her  chosen  artistic 
interpreters  in  modern  times,  but  a  stoical 
coldness  of  heart  precludes  the  sweetness 
of  friendship,  and  fills  the  beautiful  land 
with  the  blemishes  of  cruelty  on  every 
hand, — from  the  chained  and  lacerated  ani- 
mals in  the  Ueno  Museum  to  the  inhumanly 
neglected  insane.  A  cataclysm  in  which 
a  score  of  thousand  people  lose  their  lives, 
as  in  the  earthquake  of  1891  or  the  tidal 
wave  of  1896,  does  not  awaken  one  tithe 
of  the  sentiment  elicited  by  the  incon- 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         45 

veniences  of  a  single  traveler  in  his  efforts 
to  spy  upon  Russia.1  Loyalty  must  some- 
where be  present  if  agony  is  to  be  redeemed 
from  vulgarity. 

The  doctrine  that  the  supreme  end  of 
loyalty  justifies  any  means  that  may  be 
found  useful,  is  doubtless  to  a  large  degree 
responsible  for  the  Japanese  attitude  towards 
truth.  Despite  the  labored  explanations  of 
apologists,  it  is  a  literal  fact  that  if  you  ask 
an  ordinary  Japanese  which  is  better,  to 
tell  a  falsehood  or  be  impolite,  he  will  not 
hesitate  to  answer,  "To  tell  a  falsehood." 
The  passing  of  the  lie  is  a  sort  of  jocular 
compliment,  a  tribute  to  the  liar's  smooth 
shrewdness.  An  amusing  illustration  of 
the  relation  between  veracity  and  polite- 
ness comes  to  my  mind  as  I  write.  In 
order  to  make  the  point  clear,  one  must 
know  that  blonde  hair  in  Japan  is  called 

1  Major  Fukushima,  who  rode  horseback  through  Asiatic 
Russia  ten  years  ago. 


46          What  Is  Japanese  Morality  ? 

red,  that  blue  eyes  are  called  green,  and 
that  red  hair  and  green  eyes  are  the  pecu- 
liar and  hideous  attributes  of  the  Japanese 
devil.  Noting  one  day  as  I  stood  on  one 
end  of  the  school-room  platform  that  the 
lads  at  the  other  end  were  visibly  agitated 
by  English  words  which  a  somewhat  mis- 
chievous boy  in  the  front  row  had  written 
on  his  tablet,  I  moved  softly  to  his  side 
before  he  was  aware  of  my  presence.  The 
words  he  had  written  were  these:  "The 
foreigner  has  green  eyes  and  red  hair."  At 
this  juncture  a  companion  nudged  him,  and 
he  realized  the  situation.  Without  the 
tremor  of  a  muscle  or  the  flutter  of  his 
lowered  almond  eyelids,  he  calmly  pro- 
ceeded to  complete  the  sentence — "and  he 
is  very  beautiful."  I  was  so  amused  by 
this  incongruous  conclusion  that  I  wrote 
the  words  on  the  blackboard,  expecting  the 
class  to  join  me  in  mirth  over  the  glaring 
absurdity.  To  my  astonishment,  not  a  soul 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         47 

cracked  a  smile;  the  whole  class  upheld 
the  solemn-faced  lad  in  his  assertion  that 
he  intended  a  compliment,  since  to  do 
otherwise  would  have  been  openly  impolite 
to  their  teacher;  and  I  had  to  fortify  my 
recollection  of  Japanese  demonology  by  a 
subsequent  appeal  to  the  native  teachers, 
who  heartily  enjoyed  the  incident. 

Honesty  is  veracity  in  business  affairs. 
One  would  therefore  expect  to  find  Bushido 
insufficient  at  this  point,  and  indeed  the 
chief  defenders  of  Japanese  "chivalry"  are 
compelled  to  confess,  "A  loose  business 
morality  has  been  the  worst  blot  on  our 
national  reputation,"  although  they  explain 
this  away  through  the  samurai  indifference 
to  money  matters.  Japanese  commercial 
dishonesty,  in  striking  contrast  with  the 
solid  trustworthiness  of  the  stolid  Chinese, 
has  passed  into  an  international  byword, 
so  that  the  most  strenuous  of  apologists  is 
compelled  to  apologize  for  it. 


48          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

But  those  who  would  have  us  receive 
this  new  " chivalry"  almost  as  one  of  our 
numerous  new  religions,  and  make  of  it  a 
cult  for  our  own  emulation,  are  less  frank 
on  the  subject  of  the  treatment  of  Japanese 
women.  "  I  have  noticed  a  rather  super- 
ficial notion  prevailing  among  half-informed 
foreigners,"  says  a  certain  subtle  writer, 
"that  because  the  common  Japanese  ex- 
pression for  one's  wife  is  'my  rustic  wife/ 
and  the  like,  she  is  despised  and  held  in 
little  esteem.  When  it  is  told  that  such 
phrases  as  '  my  foolish  father,'  '  my  swinish 
son,'  'my  awkward  self,'  etc.,  are  in  current 
use,  is  not  the  answer  clear  enough?"  Un- 
fortunately for  the  illustrative  efficacy  of 
this  carefully  worded  interrogation,  such 
phrases  as  those  mentioned  are  not  in 
"  current  use,"  with  the  exception  of  the 
insulting  epithet  constantly  applied  to 
one's  wife,  to  which  justice  is  hardly  done 
by  the  mild  translation  of  our  very  ingen- 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         49 

ious  apologist.  It  is  a  matter  of  common 
knowledge  that  the  writings  of  Japanese 
moralists  abound  in  such  maxims  as  this: 
"  Other  kinsfolk  [than  the  parents]  may  be 
likened  unto  the  rushes,  while  husbands 
and  wives  are  but  as  useless  stones."  Pro- 
fessor Chamberlain,  the  highest  living  au- 
thority on  things  Japanese,  comments  on 
this  maxim  as  follows:  " According  to  the 
Confucian  ethical  code,  which  the  Japanese 
adopted,  a  man's  parents,  his  teacher,  and 
his  lord,  claim  his  lifelong  service,  his  wife 
standing  on  an  immeasurably  lower  plane." 
The  most  eloquent  and  truthful  study  of 
Japan  that  has  been  presented  to  the  Eng- 
lish-reading public  by  a  native  writer  is 
4<  The  Awakening  of  Japan,"  by  Professor 
Okakura  Kakuzo.  His  treatment  of  the 
subject  of  womanhood,  in  spite  of  certain 
defects,  seems  so  exceptionally  fine  that  I 
venture  to  present  it  here  at  length.  "The 
Western  attitude  of  profound  respect  toward 


5o         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

the  gentler  sex,"  declares  the  essayist,  "  ex- 
hibits a  beautiful  phase  of  refinement  which 
we  are  anxious  to  emulate.  It  is  one  of 
the  noblest  messages  that  Christianity  has 
given  us.  Christianity  originated  in  the 
East,  and,  except  as  regards  womanhood, 
its  modes  of  thought  are  not  new  to  East- 
ern minds.  As  the  new  religion  spread 
westward  through  Europe,  it  naturally  be- 
came influenced  by  the  idiosyncrasies  of 
the  various  converted  nations,  so  that  the 
poetry  of  the  German  forest,  the  adoration 
of  the  Virgin  in  the  middle  centuries,  the 
age  of  chivalry,  the  songs  of  the  trouba- 
dours, the  delicacy  of  the  Latin  nature, 
and,  above  all,  the  clean  manhood  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  probably  all  contributed 
their  share  toward  the  idealization  of 
woman."  It  may  be  remarked  that  the 
writer  hardly  does  justice  to  the  all-im- 
portant fact  that  faith  in  the  Incarnation 
has  done  more  for  the  exaltation  of  woman 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         51 

hood  than  all  other  influences  combined. 
He  then  goes  on :  "  In  Japan,  woman  has 
always  commanded  a  respect  and  freedom 
not  to  be  found  elsewhere  in  the  East  We 
have  never  had  a  Salic  law,  and  it  is  from  a 
female  divinity,  the  Sun-goddess,  that  our 
Mikado  traces  his  lineage.  During  many 
of  the  most  brilliant  epochs  in  our  ancient 
history  we  were  under  the  rule  of  a  female 
sovereign.  Our  Empress  Jingo  personally 
led  a  victorious  army  into  Korea,  and 
it  was  Empress  Suiko  who  inaugurated 
the  refined  culture  of  the  Nara  period. 
Female  sovereigns  ascended  the  throne  in 
their  own  right  even  when  there  were 
male  candidates,  for  we  considered  woman 
in  all  respects  as  the  equal  of  man.1  In 
our  classic  literature  we  find  the  names  of 
more  great  authoresses  than  authors,  while 
in  feudal  days  some  of  our  amazons 
charged  with  the  bravest  of  the  Kamakura 

1  This  statement  may  be  very  gravely  questioned. 


52          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

knights.  As  time  advanced  and  Confucian 
theories  became  more  potent  in  molding 
our  social  customs,  woman  was  relegated 
from  public  life  and  confined  to  what  was 
considered  by  the  Chinese  sage  as  her 
proper  sphere,  the  household.  Our  in- 
herent respect  for  the  rights  of  womanhood, 

,  however,  remained  the  same,  and  as  late  as 
the  year  1630  a  female  mikado,  Meisho 
Tenno,  ascended  the  throne  of  her  fathers. 
Until  after  the  Restoration,  a  knowledge  of 
such  martial  exercises  as  fencing  and  jiu- 
jutsu  was  considered  part  of  the  education 
of  a  samurai's  daughter,  and  is,  indeed, 
still  so  considered  among  many  old  fami- 
lies. .  .  .  We  have  never  hitherto,  however, 
learned  to  offer  any  special  privileges  to 

1  woman.  Love  has  never  occupied  an  im- 
portant place  in  Chinese  literature;  and  in 
the  tales  of  Japanese  chivalry,  the  samurai, 
although  ever  at  the  service  of  the  weak 
and  oppressed,  gave  his  help  quite  irre- 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         53 

spective  of  sex.  To-day  we  are  convinced 
that  the  elevation  of  woman  is  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  race.  She  is  the  epitome  of  the 
past  and  the  reservoir  of  the  future,  so  that 
the  responsibilities  of  the  new  social  life 
which  is  dawning  on  the  ancient  realms  of 
the  Sun-goddess  may  be  safely  intrusted  to 
her  care." 

Excellent  as  this  eloquent  passage  is,  it 
colors  the  condition  of  Japanese  woman- 
hood with  a  hue  too  roseate  for  the  sober 
truth ;  especially  when  the  fervid  defender 
of  Bushido  ideals  declares  that  in  his  native 
land  the  wife  is  not  less  adored  than  with 
us,  while  maternity  is  holier.  Filial  piety 
does  indeed  secure  peace  for  the  declining 
days  of  a  mother,  but  this  decline  is  liable 
to  begin  very  early  in  life  on  account  of 
the  sad  lot  of  the  wife.  She  is  the  literal 
servant  not  only  of  her  husband  but  also 
of  his  parents;  is  subject  to  divorce  for  his 
least  caprice  or  whim,  and  the  victim  of  an 


54         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

unabashed  concubinage.  A  distinguished 
writer  truthfully  remarks  that  the  Japanese, 
whose  customs  are  antipodal  to  ours  in  so 
many  ways,  even  contradict  us  in  their 
fashion  of  sowing  wild  oats  :  a  man's  career 
of  dissipation,  instead  of  tending  to  end 
with  his  marriage,  only  begins  then.  Within 
my  own  experience,  the  general  attitude  of 
young  Japan  towards  womankind  was  once 
ludicrously  indicated  by  a  student  who, 
anxious  at  the  same  time  to  air  his  knowl- 
edge of  the  alien  language  and  his  con- 
tempt for  the  alien  chivalry,  declared, 
"  When  I  do  see  the  foreigner  kiss  his  wife, 
I  do  always  catch  a  sick."  Another  student 
was  mortally  offended  because  his  Ameri- 
can teacher  attempted  to  tease  him  about  a 
pretty  girl,  thus  placing  him  on  the  same 
low  plane  with  the  despised  feminine. 

It  is  in  connection  with  the  general  ques- 
tion of  woman  that  Japanese  morality  shows 
at  its  worst,  and  their  boasted  "chivalry" 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         55 

is  divested  of  its  charm.  The  history  of 
Bushido  abounds  in  belauded  stories  of 
women  whose  virtue  was  pandered  to 
loyalty,  while  many  a  samurai  sold  his  wife 
or  his  daughter  into  a  life  of  shame  in 
order  to  fill  his  lord's  coffers  or  his  own 
with  the  wealth  that  makes  war.  While  I 
was  living  in  Tokyo,  one  of  the  principal 
theaters  was  the  scene  of  an*  unusually 
popular  play,  the  plot  running  somewhat  as 
follows:  An  ancient  lord  needed  money, 
and  asked  one  of  his  most  faithful  retainers 
to  obtain  it.  The  loyal  servant  hit  upon 
an  ingenious  plan.  Having  defiled  the 
daughter  of  a  princely  neighbor,  he  threat- 
ened to  expose  the  fact  of  her  intimacy 
with  a  social  inferior  unless  much  money 
should  be  given  him;  that  is,  he  levied 
blackmail.  And  this  was  not  the  villain, 
but  the  hero  of  the  play,  because  he  was 
loyal  to  his  lord !  He  was  greeted  with 
rounds  of  applause.  We  do  well  to  ponder 


56          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

such  typical  instances  as  these  before  wor- 
shiping Japanese  morality,  or  concluding 
that  the  people  have  no  need  of  the  gospel. 


A  BOODDHIST  SERMON 


IV 

The  present  is  a  season  of  serious  relig- 
ious degeneration  in  Japan.  This  is  the 
case  whether  we  examine  Shinto,  Confu- 
cianism, or  Booddhism.  True  it  is  that 
many  temples  are  erected  and  maintained, 
but  the  moral  influence  of  the  three  so- 
called  religions  is  slight  in  the  extreme. 
Shinto,  indeed,  has  never  stood  for  any 
moral  principle  except  loyalty.  It  is  a  cult 
of  combined  naturism  and  ancestor-worship, 
fostered  by  the  present  government  because 
it  teaches  the  divinity  of  royalty,  and  is 
therefore  an  important  tool  of  statecraft. 
Confucianism  is  the  moral  system  pro- 
fessed by  the  majority  of  the  educated 
classes  until  recently,  but  it  has  now  been 
widely  discarded  either  for  the  derivative 

59 


60         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

code  of  Bushido  or  for  an  ill-digested  hash 
of  Herbert  Spencer  and  Positivism. 

Lafcadio  Hearn,  an  ardent  admirer  both 
of  Spencer  and  of  Booddhism,  has  drawn  a 
striking  parallel  between  his  two  favorite 
philosophies.1  The  esoteric  teaching  of 
Booddhism,  as  may  be  well  gathered  from 
Mr.  Hearn's  attractive  presentation,  is  both 
profound  and  in  many  respects  admirable. 
But  its  very  nature  shuts  it  off  from  the 
common  people  as  a  wide-spread  moral  in- 
fluence, except  in  its  one  most  obvious 
aspect — as  a  religion  of  self-repression. 
For  the  priceless  lesson  of  self-control, 
which  they  have  learned  so  well  and 
against  so  many  inborn  obstacles,  the 
Japanese  owe  a  boundless  debt  to  Bood- 
dhism. It  is  also  the  source  of  their  an- 
cient rich  education,  in  letters,  arts,  and 
crafts.  But  to-day  it  has  fallen  from  its 

1  See  "  The  Higher  Buddhism,"  in  Japan  ;  an  Interpre- 
tation, 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?        6 1 

high  estate,  and  exists  as  a  husk  without 
seeds. 

As  a  popular  system  of  religion,  Bood- 
dhism  in  Japan  has  long  seemed  to  lack 
moral  earnestness.  The  sermons  of  the 
priests  remind  us  of  the  monkish  quirks  of 
the  European  Middle  Ages ;  they  have  the 
flavor  of  the  Gesta  Romanorum.  The  clergy 
itself  has  sunk  into  notorious  sloth  and  im- 
morality, so  that  the  recent  rebuke  from  the 
government  was  well  deserved. 

There  is  a  famous  and  popular  book 
called  "  Talks  About  the  Way  of  Heavenly 
Learning " 1  which  contains  some  choice 
specimens  of  Booddhist  homilies.  One 
chapter  has  an  account  of  an  encounter  be- 
between  a  priest  and  a  samurai  or  bushi 
that  seems  especially  appropriate  when  dis- 
cussing Bushido.  It  is  given  here  because 
it  presents  a  fair  idea  of  the  methods  of 
popular  Japanese  religion  at  its  best.  In 

1  Shingaku  Michi  no  Hanashi. 


62          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

the  translation  I  acknowledge  much  in- 
debtedness to  the  faithful  labor  of  Dr. 
William  Imbrie  in  his  work  on  Japanese 
Etymology.  The  piece  is  properly  enti- 
tled, Heaven  and  Hell. 

Once  upon  a  time  there  came  a  bushi 
from  a  certain  province  to  see  Ikkyu  the 
famous  priest,  and  said  to  him : 

"  I  myself  have  always  been  something 
of  a  student,  and  feel  as  if  I  had  settled 
pretty  much  everything  in  the  universe. 
But  there  is  one  thing  I  don't  understand ; 
and  that  is,  the  Booddhist  doctrine  of  heaven 
and  hell.  I  know  very  well  that  there  are 
certain  scriptural  passages  which  teach  that 
they  really  exist,  but  then  there  are  other 
passages  that  seem  to  deny  their  existence. 
On  the  whole,  now,  which  of  these  views  is 
to  be  accepted  as  correct  ?  Do  they  really 
exist,  or  not  ?  " 

Priest  Ikkyu  looked  the  bushi  straight  in 
the  face. 


A   KNIGHT  OF  BUSHIDO 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?        63 

"  What !  "  said  he,  "  Is  there  a  hell  ?  Is 
there  a  heaven  ?  Are  you  trotting  around 
asking  that  sort  of  thing?  What  sort  of 
fellow  are  you,  anyhow  ?  " 

The  bushi  flushed  and  answered : 

"  I  am  a  bushi,  to  be  sure,  and  I  want  to 
find  out  whether  there  is  a  heaven  and  hell 
or  not.  What's  the  matter  with  that  ?  " 

But  the  priest  laughed  contemptuously 
and  said : 

"  What !  you  call  yourself  a  bushi  ?  You 
belong  to  the  bushi  family  ?  Indeed !  Sup- 
posing that  you  are  a  bushi,  are  you  a 
bushwhacker  or  a  bush-beggar  ?  Are  you  a 
land-bush  or  a  water-bush  ? *  If  you  are  a 
real  true-true  bushi,  you  ought  at  least  to 
know  the  meaning  of  Bushido ;  but  it 
seems  that  you  don't  yet  know  even  the 
meaning  of  Biishido.  See  here !  A  bushi, 
from  the  crown  of  his  head  to  the  tips 

1  Like  most  puns,  these  are  well  nigh  untranslatable.     I 
have  done  my  best  with  them. 


64         What  Is  Japanese  Morality  f 

of  his  toes — no,  even  to  life  itself,  be- 
longs to  his  master;  in  no  sense  what- 
ever is  he  his  own.  Since  that  is  the  case, 
each  one,  firstly  in  times  of  peace,  gives 
strict  attention  night  and  day  to  his  own 
business,  and  thus  sees  to  it  that  his  mas- 
ter's affairs  don't  suffer.  And  then,  when 
the  danger-alarm  is  sounded,  he  must  stand 
in  front  of  his  master's  horse,  make  his  own 
life  a  target,  rush  into  the  very  midst  of  the 
enemy,  and  by  all  means  behead  as  many  of 
them  as  he  can.  But  you,  although  you  hold 
an  important  post  like  that,  have  idly  come 
here  with  your  foolish  questions, '  Tell  me,  is 
there  a  hell  ?  Tell  me,  is  there  a  heaven  ? ' 
Bah !  what  a  piece  of  foolishness !  Sup- 
pose they  do  exist,  what  are  you  going  to 
do  about  it  ?  People  call  a  fellow  like  you 
a  6usAi-stickt  or  £*uA*~trash,  or  ^/zz-scatter- 
grain !  Yah !  Ugh  !  You  bushi  not  worth 
your  own  fodder !  " — and,  rap !  he  struck 
him  with  a  fan  upon  the  head ! 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         65 

With  this  the  bus  hi  flared  up  and  shouted : 

"  You  miserable  chatterbox  of  a  monk, 
you  !  I  have  let  you  chatter  straight  along 
and  you  have  abused  me  to  your  heart's 
desire!  Even  if  you  do  wear  the  cloth, 
you  are  not  to  get  off  scot-free!  Come, 
now,  and  say  your  prayers ! " 

Whereupon,  seizing  the  sword  that  hung 
at  his  side  he  drew  it  from  its  sheath  with 
a  single  smooth  swish,  and  Ikkyu  the 
priest  stood  aghast. 

"  Look  out !  "  he  cried.  "  He  has  drawn ! 
Now  let  me  run  !  "  and,  jumping  down  into 
the  yard,  he  fled. 

Close  behind  him  chased  the  panting 
bushiy  brandishing  his  icy  sword  and  yell- 
ing, 

"  You  think  you  can  get  away  by  run- 
ning, eh  ?  " 

But  suddenly  Priest  Ikkyu  coolly  wheeled 
about  and  faced  him,  pointing  at  him  in  his 
rage,  and  crying, 


66         What  Is  Japanese  Morality  ? 

"Oh,  horrible!  Why,  that  is  hell!" 
whereupon  a  startled  exclamation  burst 
from  the  buski,  and  he  flung  his  sword 
clattering  on  the  ground  with  the  words, 

"  Right  you  are !  This  indeed  is  hell ! 
And  so  your  honorable  raillery  just  now 
was  only  a  noble  device  with  which  you 
condescended  to  teach  me  this  ?  The  hell 
that  had  no  existence  until  a  moment  ago 
came  into  existence  the  instant  I  heard 
your  Reverence's  passing  raillery!  So, 
then,  it  is  not  fixed  as  to  its  existence,  and 
it  is  not  fixed  as  to  its  non-existence ;  and 
for  this  very  reason  I  now  perceive  that  it  is 
a  thing  to  be  truly  dreaded  !  Wonderful ! 
Wonderful !  I  thank  you  a  thousand  times ! " 

And  with  tears  streaming  down  his  face 
he  made  his  obeisance,  while  Ikkyu  the 
priest  smiled  blandly  and  said : 

"  Oh,  you  have  quickly  understood ;  and 
so  I,  too,  am  satisfied !  Glory !  Glory !  Oh, 
this  is  heaven !  This  indeed  is  heaven ! " 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality  ?        67 

"  So  runs  the  story.  And  was  not  that  a 
very  happy  way  of  putting  it  ?  " 

Without  doubt  this  is  more  than  a  hu- 
morous story,  suggestive  of  more  morals 
than  one.  But  the  levity  that  pervades  it 
is  typical,  and  helps  to  account  for  the  fact 
that  the  people  are  frequently  charged  with 
frivolity  in  matters  affecting  religion.  Says 
one  of  their  critics :  "  '  Frivolous '  is  a 
hard  word  for  people  who  have  been  so 
thorough  in  their  reforms,  and  are  so 
simple  in  their  lives,  but  it  is  the  only  word 
which  seems  to  fit  a  people  who  have  so 
little  sense  of  awe  and  so  little  friendship 
with  sorrow.  They  live  over  a  volcano, 
but  their  talk  is  of  flowers,  and  their  inter- 
est is  in  the  last  foreign  importation. 
There  is  an  absence  in  their  art  and  their 
history  of  the  grand.  The  terrible  is  inter- 
rupted by  the  grotesque,  and  the  wish  to 
provoke  a  laugh  seems  almost  irresistible. 
There  is  no  Fifty-first  Psalm  in  their 


68          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

language,  and  no  Puritan  in  their  his- 
tory. 

"  It  is  as  a  consequence  of  this  frivolity 
that  principle  is  weak  and  originality  rare. 
They  have  not  been  awed  into  seriousness 
by  a  vision  of  the  '  I  am/  or  of  the  '  One 
high  and  lifted  up ; '  they  have  not  learned 
that  anything  is  fixed,  and  they  do  not 
know  '  The  Eternal/  " 

This  author,1  in  a  remarkably  discerning 
essay  that  appeared  in  The  Contemporary 
Review  more  than  a  dozen  years  ago,  de- 
clares that  before  the  Japanese  can  receive 
and  appreciate  the  gospel,  they  must  first 
have  the  preaching  of  the  Law.  "They 
need  Moses  and  the  prophets  lest  they 
become  Christian  atheists,  followers  indeed 
of  Christ  as  a  man  and  a  teacher,  but  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  the  God  whose  image 
Christ  is.  Moses,  we  are  told,  aspired  to 
see  the  face  of  God,  the  author  of  the  law 

1  The  Rev.  S.  A.  Barnett. 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?        69 

he  preached  to  the  people.  That  was  im- 
possible, but  as  he  hid  in  the  cleft  of  the 
rock  he  was  allowed  to  see  the  hinder  part 
— he  learned,  that  is  to  say,  of  God  in 
history.  The  Japanese  have  need  to  be 
brought  where,  looking  back  on  the  past, 
they  will  see  traces  that  the  righteous  God 
has  passed  by.  A  Moses  must  startle 
them  by  revealing  the  Almighty  who  is 
not  far  from  any  one,  and  is  terrible  in  his 
righteousness;  a  prophet  must  convince 
them  of  sin,  and  force  from  their  hearts  the 
words,  'Woe  is  me,  for  I  am  undone/ 
The  Christianity  they  are  taught  must  be 
that  which  made  Felix  tremble :  the  Christ 
who  is  preached  must  be  the  Christ  whose 
eyes  are  as*  fire;  and  the  demand  made 
must  not  be  the  acceptance  of  a  form  or  a 
creed,  or  even  of  a  code  of  morals,  but  of  a 
new  life.  The  Japanese  need  to  be  awed, 
to  be  smitten  into  seriousness,  by  the 
revelation  of  the  God  who  is  above  the 


70         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

world,  and  of  the  hell  which  is  underneath 
civilization. 

"  Up  to  now  they  have  delighted  to  paint 
Fuji-yama,  their  sacred  mount,  surrounded 
by  birds  and  flowers,  and  they  have  re- 
garded the  happy  man  as  the  highest  man. 
They  have  need  to  learn  of  Moses  and  the 
prophets  that  fire  is  the  fitting  garment  of 
the  holy  mountain,  and  that  the  Man  of 
Sorrows  is  the  highest  man.  When  they 
know  the  Eternal,  they  will  make  friends 
with  sorrow,  and  the  Christian  message 
will  be  comfort  and  joy  and  peace." 


CHRISTIANITY 


V 

Lafcadio  Hearn,  in  the  most  valuable  of 
his  many  books  on  Japan,  declares  that 
"the  history  of  Japan  is  really  the  history 
of  her  religion."  In  the  interpretation  of 
this  statement,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  religion  here  really  means  Bushido, 
which  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  re- 
markable implement  of  government.  In 
other  words,  the  moral  and  religious  in- 
stincts of  the  people  have  all  been  utilized 
directly  for  the  support  of  the  throne.  A 
god  sits  upon  that  throne,  and  loyalty  is 
therefore  the  whole  of  morality.  Booddhism 
and  Confucianism  have  been  adapted  to 
this  theory,  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of 
Shinto.  The  religion  of  the  Japanese  is 
patriotism,  and  their  government  is  a 

73 


74          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

pseudo-theocracy.  For  the  government, 
from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present,  has 
been  that  group  of  strong  men  who  could 
control  the  incarnate  deity,  the  Mikado, 
and  through  his  divine  voice  control  the 
people. 

So  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  Japanese 
is  morally  impersonal,  and  his  ethical  mo- 
tives are  not  impulsions,  but  the  result  of 
compulsion  exercised  upon  him  from  with- 
out. His  master's  word  has  come  to  be 
his  moral  law,  and  ages  of  feudalism  have 
elaborated  this  law  into  a  complex  system, 
rigid  against  individualism,  inflexible  in 
behalf  of  the  state.  Booddhism,  with  its 
doctrine  of  individual  repression,  has  vastly 
assisted  in  this  process.  And  Booddhism 
has  assisted  no  less  with  its  impersonal 
teaching  about  God.  A  great  writer  on 
theism  has  declared :  "  Belief  in  the  person- 
ality of  man,  and  belief  in  the  personality 
of  God,  stand  or  fall  together.  Where 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?        75 

faith  in  the  personality  of  God  is  weak, 
or  is  altogether  wanting,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  pantheistic  religions  of  the  East, 
the  perception  which  men  have  of  their 
own  personality  is  found  to  be  in  an  equal 
degree  indistinct.  The  feeling  of  individu- 
ality is  dormant.  The  soul  indolently 
ascribes  to  itself  a  merely  phenomenal 
existence.  It  conceives  of  itself  as  appear- 
ing for  a  moment,  like  a  wavelet  on  the 
ocean,  to  vanish  again  in  the  all-engulfing 
essence  whence  it  emerged." 

These  several  co-operative  influences 
have  so  wrought  upon  the  naturally  indi- 
vidualist temperament  of  the  Japanese  in 
the  course  of  the  last  fifteen  centuries  as  to 
make  it  possible  for  an  acute  observer  to 
argue  successfully  that  the  Japanese  mind 
is  become  impersonal  (Mr.  Percival  Lowell, 
in  "  The  Soul  of  the  Far  East ").  And  it  is 
in  the  substitution  of  the  external  letter  of 
the  moral  law  for  informing  spirit  that  one 


76         What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

finds  the  whole  explanation  of  the  defec- 
tive Japanese  morality.  The  distortion 
glares  horribly  in  the  picture  of  the  father 
fingering  the  bloody  head  of  his  child  in 
order  to  protect  his  princeling,  the  spirit  of 
natural  affection  being  stifled  in  behalf  of  a 
superimposed  artificial  loyalty.1  It  accounts 
for  the  experience  which  distressed  Mr. 
Hearn,  and  which  every  foreign  teacher  in 
Japan  must  have  noted.  Your  pupil,  who 
is  docile  and  polite  in  his  senior  year,  a 
model  of  application  and  decorum  and 
deference,  will  return  to  see  you  next  year, 
transformed  into  an  insolent,  arrogant  prig. 
The  ethical  system  had  taught  him,  and 
long  generations  before  him,  the  duty  of 
deference  to  teachers,  but  the  spirit  of 
deference  is  lacking;  and  so  when  the  ex- 
ternal relationship  of  teacher  and  pupil  is 
gone,  pagan  morality  lapses  into  barbar- 
ism. Needless  to  say,  Bushido  has  proved 
fatal  to  friendship,  as  to  conjugal  felicity; 

1  See  page  28. 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?        77 

for  friendship  implies  equality,  and  Bushido 
was  a  system  of  relationships  between 
higher  and  lower.  Its  loyalty  was  a  tool 
of  government. 

The  peculiar  externalism  of  Japanese 
ideals  is  nowhere  seen  more  clearly  than  in 
that  most  interior  of  motives  known  as  the 
personal  honor.  The  language  lacks  an 
equivalent  for  this  word,  because  it  is  so 
intensely  personal;  just  as  it  lacks  a  word 
for  sin,  while  it  has  one  for  crime.  But  in 
the  exploitation  of  Japanese  chivalry  the 
apologists  have  naturally  treated  of"  honor,'* 
and  it  is  exceedingly  interesting  to  note  the 
definition  unconsciously  employed.  Writ- 
ing of  the  ancient  warriors,  Professor  Ni- 
tobe  says:  "The  sense  of  honor  which 
cannot  bear  being  looked  down  upon  as  an 
inferior  power, — that  was  the  strongest  of 
motives." 

We  are  also  told  that  in  ancient  mercan- 
tile notes  it  was  a  usual  thing  to  insert  the 


78          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

clause:  "In  default  of  the  repayment  of 
the  sum  lent  to  me,  I  shall  say  nothing 
against  being  ridiculed  in  public."  A 
prominent  modern  teacher  has  called  ridi- 
cule the  gravest  of  evils.  And  notwith- 
standing the  beautiful  maxims  of  Chinese 
sages  concerning  honor,  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  Japan  as  a  nation  to-day  is  still  con- 
trolled, even  in  the  making  of  its  peace 
terms,  by  that  "  sense  of  honor  which  can- 
not bear  being  looked  down  upon  as  an 
inferior  power."  In  other  words,  even  the 
sense  of  honor  is  objective. 

Christianity  is  exactly  opposed  to  the 
ancient  Japanese  system  of  government. 
It  destroys  the  belief  in  a  God-emperor  at 
a  blow.  Not  only  so,  but  it  is  essentially 
and  intensely  individual.  "The  kingdom 
of  God  is  within  you," — that  is  its  main 
moral  tenet.  Christ  came  to  break  down 
the  piety  of  formalism,  the  religion  that 
laid  burdens  on  men  from  without,  and  to 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality  ?        79 

teach  responsibility  to  the  inner  shrine  of 
the  spirit.  "  Ye  are  the  temple  of  God  "  is 
its  watchword.  It  is  little  wonder  that  the 
statecraft  of  lyeyasu  and  lyemitsu  opposed 
itself  to  this  religion,  just  as  the  worldly- 
wise  Trajan  outlawed  it  in  Rome.  Chris- 
tianity works  toward  freedom,  and  Bushido 
was  spiritual  bondage. 

But  it  must  always  be  kept  clearly  in 
mind  that  the  Japanese  are  by  nature  of  a 
powerfully  individualist  temperament,  im- 
petuous, restive,  headlong, — Tartar  to  the 
very  bone.  They  owe  a  great  debt  to  Bood- 
dhism  for  its  age-long  lessons  in  self-mas- 
tery, for  without  this  priceless  schooling 
they  would  long  ago  have  wrought  their 
own  destruction.  They  now  leap  eagerly, 
and,  as  it  were,  by  instinct,  toward  the  flood- 
gates of  the  liberating  West.  With  what 
amazing  rapidity  did  their  intrepid  spirits 
cast  off  the  shackles  of  the  tyrannical  Sho- 
gunate  system, — the  natural  crystallization 


So          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

of  Bushido, — and  clothe  themselves  on  with 
the  freedom  of  constitutional  government! 
Only  a  nature  of  the  most  intense  indi- 
vidualism could  have  accomplished  such  an 
astonishing  turning  about,  and  only  a  nation 
that  had  somehow  learned  the  most  rigid 
self-control  could  have  accomplished  this 
feat  without  destruction.  Is  it  too  much 
to  believe  that  these  are  God's  chosen  chil- 
dren of  the  East,  schooled  in  mysterious 
fashion  for  the  reception  of  the  truth  that 
maketh  free,  and  panoplied  to  be  the  evan- 
gelists of  Asia? 

I  will  not  dwell  upon  the  fact  that  the 
Japanese  are  familiar,  through  ages  of  their 
own  peculiar  history,  with  the  doctrine  of 
substitutionary  sacrifice,  and  even  with  the 
theory  of  incarnation.  I  have  already 
selected  from  their  own  annals  a  luminous 
illustration  of  the  crucifixion.1  I  desire  to 
suggest  a  more  profound  preparation  that 
they  have  had,  beyond  all  peoples  in  his- 

1  See  page  30. 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         8 1 

tory,  for  one  of  the  fundamental  truths  of 
our  religion. 

Of  course  I  mean  the  fatherhood  of 
God.  Hitherto  they  have  deified  the  forces 
of  nature  in  their  effort  to  feel  after  him,  if 
haply  they  might  find  him,  but  nature  is 
sullen-tempered  in  Japan,  with  frequent 
bursts  of  typhoon-wrath  and  passionate 
earthquake  trembling.  Therefore  their 
visual  representations  of  deity  have  chiefly 
been  great,  angry  beings,  crying  out  to  be 
appeased.  These  pantheistic  conceptions 
have  also  weakened  the  notion  of  de^ty  by 
breaking  the  divine  power  into  millions  of 
pieces,  the  Japanese  pantheon  containing 
800,000,000  gods.  Yet  the  numerous  im- 
ages of  Jizo  the  Merciful  tell  us  that  after 
all  the  worshipers  yearn  toward  a  revela- 
tion of  the  love  of  a  personal  God,  and  the 
last  vestige  of  doubt  is  removed  when  we 
gaze  into  the  compassionate  face  of  the 
Deity  of  Boundless  Light,  the  Dai-Butsu 


82          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

at  Kamakura.  The  noblest  ideals  of  the 
race  have  embodied  themselves  in  that  vast 
image,  before  whom  troops  of  adoring 
devotees  pass  in  a  perennial  stream.  Con- 
ceive their  thoughts  as  being  led  up  to  be- 
lieve, not  that  this  great  father-image  is 
half  emblem  and  half  tombstone  of  a 
former  golden  age,  but  that  it  is  the  vis- 
ualized cry  of  the  universal  human  soul, 
"  Oh,  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  Him ! " 
— and  that  it  is  also  the  faint  human  fore- 
shadowing of  One  eternally  compassionate, 
the  Father  of  us  all,  in  whom,  indeed,  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  daily  being. 
Conceive  of  their  wonderful  filial  love  as 
being  led  up  to  its  logical  fulfilment,  from 
father  through  teacher  to  prince,  and 
finally  to  rest  in  him  who  is  King  of  kings 
and  Lord  of  lords.  Then  their  loyalty  will 
bind  them  in  a  religious  devotion,  warmed 
by  their  innate  power  to  perceive  the  beau- 
tiful, and  vitalized  by  their  energy  to  do  as 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         83 

well  as  to  be,  such  as  will  rank  them  in  the 
forefront  of  the  religious  peoples  of  history. 
Conversely,  the  clarified  vision  of  the  per- 
son of  God  will  inevitably  quicken  their 
own  dormant  sense  of  personality,  so  that 
a  richer  spiritual  soil  will  enlarge  and  ripen 
the  now  dwarfed  fruitage  of  moral  imper- 
sonality,— and  as  they  grow  into  a  sense  of 
sonship  to  God  they  will  also  perceive  in 
every  man  their  brother,  and  their  sympa- 
thies will  widen  to  include  the  world. 
Once  really  teach  the  divine  Fatherhood, 
and  the  brotherhood  of  man  is  a  fact 
accomplished.  Of  course,  God  should  be 
revealed  in  his  completeness,  as  a  God  of 
"  infinite  pity,  yet  also  infinite  rigor  of  law ; " 
and  it  must  be  clearly  shown  to  them  that 
the  love  of  Christ  is  made  perfect  because 
his  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law. 

The  Japanese  are  not  slow  to  believe, 
when  proper  opportunity  is  given,  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  revelation  of  the  Father. 


84          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

The  fact  that  most  securely  seals  them  in 
this  faith  is  his  perfect  morality,  as  morality 
is  understood  by  them.  They  see  that  he 
was  absolutely  loyal  to  his  Father.  So  he 
fulfilled  the  law. 

They  are  also  quick  to  recognize  the 
roundness  and  crystal  clearness  of  his 
character  with  an  appreciation  that  sur- 
prises us,  in  view  of  their  own  defective 
morality.  I  well  remember  how,  when 
teaching  the  life  of  Christ  to  a  class  of 
brilliant  teachers,  they  showed  increasing 
interest  week  by  week,  until  at  length, 
when  he  entered  and  cleansed  the  temple, 
one  of  them  cried,  "  Now  we  see  that  he  is 
perfect!  His  gentleness  has  seemed  su- 
preme, as  with  Booddha,  but  now  this  one 
touch  of  masculine  fire,  unselfish  but  flam- 
ing, reveals  that  he  lacked  not  one  iota  of 
perfection."  The  story  of  the  cross,  when 
finally  we  reached  it,  unveiled  him  in  a 
blaze  of  blended  glory,  love,  and  strength 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?        85 

to'  eyes  that  were  filled  with  sympathetic 
tears. 

The  Japanese  are  in  many  ways  predis- 
posed and  prepared  for  Christianity.  By 
nature  they  are  of  a  noble,  generous  spirit, 
keenly  alive  to  the  beautiful,  and  with  a 
courtesy  that  defies  comparison.  What  I 
have  wVitten  by  way  of  criticism  has  been 
set  down  reluctantly,  for  in  my  heart  I  love 
them,  as  all  must  who  really  know  them. 
I  have  written  it  because  it  is  the  truth, 
and  because  I  believe  it  to  be  the  outcome 
of  a  faith  in  itself  defective,  yet  serving  very 
well  as  a  schoolmaster  to  lead  them  to 
Christ.  If  we  had  shown  one  tithe  of  the 
energy  in  supplying  them  with  our  ideals 
that  we  have  evinced  in  developing  our 
commerce,  Japan,  with  her  marvelous  alert- 
ness and  power  of  adaptation,  would  be 
nominally  Christian  to-day.  I  say  "  nomi- 
nally/* because  the  development  of  a  real 
spiritual  growth  is  always  slow.  But  the 


86          What  Is  Japanese  Morality? 

nominal  must  precede  the  actual,  and  so 
the  evangelization  of  Japan  is  the  supreme 
duty  of  the  Christian  church  at  this  hour. 
The  number  of  properly  qualified  missiona- 
ries ought  to  be  multiplied  a  hundredfold ; 
men  of  large  mold,  with  patience  and 
dignity  and,  if  you  please,  with  the  saving 
grace  of  humor,  which  is  always  the  ac- 
companiment of  common  sense;  men, 
above  all,  of  character,  that  strange,  sweet 
product  of  Christ's  spirit  living  in  a  human 
shrine ;  and  they  will  approach  these  fore- 
ordained leaders  of  the  East  with  sympathy 
and  persuasion,  linking  the  revealed  truth 
of  God  to  the  law  already  written  in  their 
hearts,  and  leading  their  precious  human 
loyalty  up  into  the  loyalty  that  is  love  for 
God  and  all  men.  These  ardent  ener- 
gizers  of  the  East,  once  their  spirits  are 
quickened  by  Christ's  flame,  will  bear 
his  light  inevitably  to  their  fellows  in 
Asia,  and  thus  the  "land  of  the  rising 


What  Is  Japanese  Morality?         87 

sun  "  *    shall  fulfil  the  glorious  destiny  of 
her  name.    2/fc  \\e 


***** 
Arise,  shine  ;  for  thy  light  is  come,  and 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  iipon  thee.  For, 
behold,  the  darkness  shall  cover  the  earth, 
and  gross  darkness  the  people  :  but  the  Lord 
shall  arise  upon  thee,  and  his  glory  shall  be 
seen  upon  thee.  And  the  Gentiles  shall  come 
to  thy  light,  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of 
thy  rising.  The  sun  shall  be  no  more  thy 
light  by  day  ;  neither  for  brightness  shall  the 
moon  give  light  unto  thee:  but  the  Lord 
shall  be  unto  thee  an  everlasting  light,  and 
thy  God  thy  glory.  Thy  people  also  shall  be 
all  righteous  :  they  shall  inherit  the  land  for- 
ever, the  branch  of  my  planting,  the  work  of 
my  hands,  that  I  may  be  glorified.  A  little 
one  shall  become  a  thousand,  and  a  small  one 
a  strong  nation:  I  the  Lord  will  hasten  it  in 
his  time. 

1  This  is  the  literal  meaning  of  the  word  Japan. 


NOTE  ON  PRONUNCIATION 

Reprinted  from  the  author's  "  Young  Japan  "  by  permission  of 
The  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co. 

A  word  may  be  easily  divided  into  its  com- 
ponent syllables  by  simply  applying  the  rule  that 
wherever  a  vowel  or  the  diphthong  ai  occurs, 
there  is  the  end  of  a  syllable  ;  for  every  syllable 
in  the  Japanese  language  ends  either  in  one  of 
these  or  with  the  consonant  n.  Wherever  this 
letter  occurs,  it  is  attached  to  the  preceding  vowel 
before  the  syllable  is  formed.  Double  consonants 
simply  denote  emphasis  ;  thus  :  Nip-pon,  each  p 
being  sounded. 

Marks  above  o  and  u  indicate  that  the  vowel 
sounds  are  prolonged,  having  the  value  of  o  in 
"whole"  and  of  u  in  "rude."  When  the 
vowels  are  not  so  marked,  they  have  the  follow- 
ing approximate  values  : 

a  as  in  ah 


o 

u 


men 


machine 

so 

bush 


a=I 

Roughly  speaking,  there  is  no  accent,  all  of  the 
syllables  receiving  equal  emphasis,  except  when 
otherwise  indicated  by  the  double  consonants  or 
the  marks  above  the  protracted  vowels. 

JAMES  A.  B.  SCHERER. 
Newberry  College,  S.  C. 


10W!ar'56PT 


*n 


FEC'D 

HOV  13  19S7 


^f^^BRAR, 


BERKELEY 


JAN  l  5  2006 


s!6)476 


22730 


M3I0218 


